Method and apparatus for performing uplink transmission in wireless lan system

ABSTRACT

Proposed is a method for determining transmission using a network allocation vector (NAV) in a wireless LAN system. Specifically, after a receiving device receives a trigger frame, which triggers an uplink multiple user transmission, from a transmitting device, whether to transmit an uplink physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) corresponding to the trigger frame is determined using the NAV of the receiving device. In this case, if the NAV is established by an intra-basic service set (BSS) frame, whether to transmit the uplink PPDU is determined without taking the NAV into consideration.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

This specification relates to a method for performing uplinktransmission in a wireless LAN system and, most particularly, to anenhanced method related to carrier sensing in case of performing uplinkmulti-user transmission in a wireless LAN system.

Related Art

Discussion for a next-generation wireless local area network (WLAN) isin progress. In the next-generation WLAN, an object is to 1) improve aninstitute of electronic and electronics engineers (IEEE) 802.11 physical(PHY) layer and a medium access control (MAC) layer in bands of 2.4 GHzand 5 GHz, 2) increase spectrum efficiency and area throughput, 3)improve performance in actual indoor and outdoor environments such as anenvironment in which an interference source exists, a denseheterogeneous network environment, and an environment in which a highuser load exists, and the like.

An environment which is primarily considered in the next-generation WLANis a dense environment in which access points (APs) and stations (STAs)are a lot and under the dense environment, improvement of the spectrumefficiency and the area throughput is discussed. Further, in thenext-generation WLAN, in addition to the indoor environment, in theoutdoor environment which is not considerably considered in the existingWLAN, substantial performance improvement is concerned.

In detail, scenarios such as wireless office, smart home, stadium,Hotspot, and building/apartment are largely concerned in thenext-generation WLAN and discussion about improvement of systemperformance in a dense environment in which the APs and the STAs are alot is performed based on the corresponding scenarios.

In the next-generation WLAN, improvement of system performance in anoverlapping basic service set (OBSS) environment and improvement ofoutdoor environment performance, and cellular offloading are anticipatedto be actively discussed rather than improvement of single linkperformance in one basic service set (BSS). Directionality of thenext-generation means that the next-generation WLAN gradually has atechnical scope similar to mobile communication. When a situation isconsidered, in which the mobile communication and the WLAN technologyhave been discussed in a small cell and a direct-to-direct (D2D)communication area in recent years, technical and business convergenceof the next-generation WLAN and the mobile communication is predicted tobe further active.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Technical Objects

This specification proposes an enhanced method in a case when multipleusers perform uplink transmission.

This specification proposes an example for resolving the technicalproblems that may occur in a case when a method for determining whetheror not to perform uplink transmission according to the related art isapplied to a situation of supporting multiple users.

Technical Solutions

This specification proposes a transmitting method that can be applied toa wireless LAN system.

More specifically, the corresponding method includes a step of receivinga trigger frame triggering uplink multiple user transmission from atransmitting device to a receiving device.

Additionally, the corresponding method also include a step ofdetermining whether or not to transmit an uplink physical layer protocoldata unit (PPDU) in response to the trigger frame by using a networkallocation vector (NAV) of the receiving device by the receiving device,wherein, in case the NAV is configured by an intra basic service set(BSS) frame, whether or not to transmit the uplink PPDU is determinedwithout considering the NAV.

And, the corresponding method includes a step of transmitting the uplinkPPDU from the receiving device to the transmitting device, in case theuplink PPDU is determined to be transmitted.

The above-described method may be applied to an AP device and/or anon-AP device of a wireless LAN system.

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION

According to the example of this specification, in case multiple usersperform uplink transmission, enhanced operations may be realized. Morespecifically, the technical problems that may occur in a case when amethod for determined whether or not to perform uplink transmissionaccording to the related art is applied to a situation of supportingmultiple users may be resolved by the example of this specification.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a conceptual view illustrating the structure of a wirelesslocal area network (WLAN).

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a PPDU used in an IEEEstandard.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an HE PDDU.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a layout of resource units (RUs) usedin a band of 20 MHz.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a layout of resource units (RUs) usedin a band of 40 MHz.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a layout of resource units (RUs) usedin a band of 80 MHz.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating another example of the HE PPDU.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating one example of HE-SIG-B accordingto an embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a trigger frame.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a common information field.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a sub-field being included in a peruser information field.

FIG. 12 is a procedure flow chart describing the operations according tothe exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a drawing describing the basic operations of an OFDMA basedrandom access procedure.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing an uplink MU PPDU that is transmittedin response to the above-described trigger frame.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing a wireless device to which theexemplary embodiment may be applied.

DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 is a conceptual view illustrating the structure of a wirelesslocal area network (WLAN).

An upper part of FIG. 1 illustrates the structure of an infrastructurebasic service set (BSS) of institute of electrical and electronicengineers (IEEE) 802.11.

Referring the upper part of FIG. 1, the wireless LAN system may includeone or more infrastructure BSSs 100 and 105 (hereinafter, referred to asBSS). The BSSs 100 and 105 as a set of an AP and an STA such as anaccess point (AP) 125 and a station (STA1) 100-1 which are successfullysynchronized to communicate with each other are not concepts indicatinga specific region. The BSS 105 may include one or more STAs 105-1 and105-2 which may be joined to one AP 130.

The BSS may include at least one STA, APs providing a distributionservice, and a distribution system (DS) 110 connecting multiple APs.

The distribution system 110 may implement an extended service set (ESS)140 extended by connecting the multiple BSSs 100 and 105. The ESS 140may be used as a term indicating one network configured by connectingone or more APs 125 or 230 through the distribution system 110. The APincluded in one ESS 140 may have the same service set identification(SSID).

A portal 120 may serve as a bridge which connects the wireless LANnetwork (IEEE 802.11) and another network (e.g., 802.X).

In the BSS illustrated in the upper part of FIG. 1, a network betweenthe APs 125 and 130 and a network between the APs 125 and 130 and theSTAs 100-1, 105-1, and 105-2 may be implemented. However, the network isconfigured even between the STAs without the APs 125 and 130 to performcommunication. A network in which the communication is performed byconfiguring the network even between the STAs without the APs 125 and130 is defined as an Ad-Hoc network or an independent basic service set(IBSS).

A lower part of FIG. 1 illustrates a conceptual view illustrating theIBSS.

Referring to the lower part of FIG. 1, the IBSS is a BSS that operatesin an Ad-Hoc mode. Since the IBSS does not include the access point(AP), a centralized management entity that performs a managementfunction at the center does not exist. That is, in the IBSS, STAs 150-1,150-2, 150-3, 155-4, and 155-5 are managed by a distributed manner. Inthe IBSS, all STAs 150-1, 150-2, 150-3, 155-4, and 155-5 may beconstituted by movable STAs and are not permitted to access the DS toconstitute a self-contained network.

The STA as a predetermined functional medium that includes a mediumaccess control (MAC) that follows a regulation of an Institute ofElectrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard and aphysical layer interface for a radio medium may be used as a meaningincluding all of the APs and the non-AP stations (STAs).

The STA may be called various a name such as a mobile terminal, awireless device, a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU), user equipment(UE), a mobile station (MS), a mobile subscriber unit, or just a user.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a PPDU used in an IEEEstandard.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, various types of PHY protocol data units(PPDUs) may be used in a standard such as IEEE a/g/n/ac, etc. In detail,LTF and STF fields include a training signal, SIG-A and SIG-B includecontrol information for a receiving station, and a data field includesuser data corresponding to a PSDU.

In the embodiment, an improved technique is provided, which isassociated with a signal (alternatively, a control information field)used for the data field of the PPDU. The signal provided in theembodiment may be applied onto high efficiency PPDU (HE PPDU) accordingto an IEEE 802.11ax standard. That is, the signal improved in theembodiment may be HE-SIG-A and/or HE-SIG-B included in the HE PPDU. TheHE-SIG-A and the HE-SIG-B may be represented even as the SIG-A andSIG-B, respectively. However, the improved signal proposed in theembodiment is not particularly limited to an HE-SIG-A and/or HE-SIG-Bstandard and may be applied to control/data fields having various names,which include the control information in a wireless communication systemtransferring the user data.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an HE PDDU.

The control information field provided in the embodiment may be theHE-SIG-B included in the HE PPDU. The HE PPDU according to FIG. 3 is oneexample of the PPDU for multiple users and only the PPDU for themultiple users may include the HE-SIG-B and the corresponding HE SIG-Bmay be omitted in a PPDU for a single user.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, the HE-PPDU for multiple users (MUs) mayinclude a legacy-short training field (L-STF), a legacy-long trainingfield (L-LTF), a legacy-signal (L-SIG), a high efficiency-signal A(HE-SIG A), a high efficiency-signal-B (HE-SIG B), a highefficiency-short training field (HE-STF), a high efficiency-longtraining field (HE-LTF), a data field (alternatively, an MAC payload),and a packet extension (PE) field. The respective fields may betransmitted during an illustrated time period (that is, 4 or 8 μs).

More detailed description of the respective fields of FIG. 3 will bemade below.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a layout of resource units (RUs) usedin a band of 20 MHz.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, resource units (RUs) corresponding to tone(that is, subcarriers) of different numbers are used to constitute somefields of the HE-PPDU. For example, the resources may be allocated bythe unit of the RU illustrated for each of the HE-STF, the HE-LTF, andthe data field.

As illustrated in an uppermost part of FIG. 4, 26 units (that is, unitscorresponding to 26 tones). 6 tones may be used as a guard band in aleftmost band of the 20 MHz band and 5 tones may be used as the guardband in a rightmost band of the 20 MHz band. Further, 7 DC tones may beinserted into a center band, that is, a DC band and a 26-unitcorresponding to each 13 tones may be present at left and right sides ofthe DC band. The 26-unit, a 52-unit, and a 106-unit may be allocated toother bands. Each unit may be allocated for a receiving station, thatis, a user.

Meanwhile, the RU layout of FIG. 4 may be used even in a situation for asingle user (SU) in addition to the multiple users (MUs) and in thiscase, as illustrated in a lowermost part of FIG. 4, one 242-unit may beused and in this case, three DC tones may be inserted.

In one example of FIG. 4, RUs having various sizes, that is, a 26-RU, a52-RU, a 106-RU, a 242-RU, and the like are proposed, and as a result,since detailed sizes of the RUs may extend or increase, the embodimentis not limited to a detailed size (that is, the number of correspondingtones) of each RU.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a layout of resource units (RUs) usedin a band of 40 MHz.

Similarly to a case in which the RUs having various RUs are used in oneexample of FIG. 4, 26-RU, 52-RU, 106-RU, 242-RU, 484-RU, and the likemay be used even in one example of FIG. 5. Further, 5 DC tones may beinserted into a center frequency, 12 tones may be used as the guard bandin the leftmost band of the 40 MHz band and 11 tones may be used as theguard band in the rightmost band of the 40 MHz band.

In addition, as illustrated in FIG. 5, when the RU layout is used forthe single user, the 484-RU may be used. That is, the detailed number ofRUs may be modified similarly to one example of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a layout of resource units (RUs) usedin a band of 80 MHz.

Similarly to a case in which the RUs having various RUs are used in oneexample of each of FIG. 4 or 5, 26-RU, 52-RU, 106-RU, 242-RU, 484-RU,and the like may be used even in one example of FIG. 6. Further, 7 DCtones may be inserted into the center frequency, 12 tones may be used asthe guard band in the leftmost band of the 80 MHz band and 11 tones maybe used as the guard band in the rightmost band of the 80 MHz band. Inaddition, the 26-RU may be used, which uses 13 tones positioned at eachof left and right sides of the DC band.

Moreover, as illustrated in FIG. 6, when the RU layout is used for thesingle user, 996-RU may be used and in this case, 5 DC tones may beinserted. Meanwhile, the detailed number of RUs may be modifiedsimilarly to one example of each of FIG. 4 or 5.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating another example of the HE PPDU.

A block illustrated in FIG. 7 is another example of describing theHE-PPDU block of FIG. 3 in terms of a frequency.

An illustrated L-STF 700 may include a short training orthogonalfrequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol. The L-STF 700 may be usedfor frame detection, automatic gain control (AGC), diversity detection,and coarse frequency/time synchronization.

An L-LTF 710 may include a long training orthogonal frequency divisionmultiplexing (OFDM) symbol. The L-LTF 710 may be used for finefrequency/time synchronization and channel prediction.

An L-SIG 720 may be used for transmitting control information. The L-SIG720 may include information regarding a data rate and a data length.Further, the L-SIG 720 may be repeatedly transmitted. That is, a newformat, in which the L-SIG 720 is repeated (for example, may be referredto as R-LSIG) may be configured.

An HE-SIG-A 730 may include the control information common to thereceiving station.

In detail, the HE-SIG-A 730 may include information on 1) a DL/ULindicator, 2) a BSS color field indicating an identify of a BSS, 3) afield indicating a remaining time of a current TXOP period, 4) abandwidth field indicating at least one of 20, 40, 80, 160 and 80+80MHz, 5) a field indicating an MCS technique applied to the HE-SIG-B, 6)an indication field regarding whether the HE-SIG-B is modulated by adual subcarrier modulation technique for MCS, 7) a field indicating thenumber of symbols used for the HE-SIG-B, 8) a field indicating whetherthe HE-SIG-B is configured for a full bandwidth MIMO transmission, 9) afield indicating the number of symbols of the HE-LTF, 10) a fieldindicating the length of the HE-LTF and a CP length, 11) a fieldindicating whether an OFDM symbol is present for LDPC coding, 12) afield indicating control information regarding packet extension (PE),13) a field indicating information on a CRC field of the HE-SIG-A, andthe like. A detailed field of the HE-SIG-A may be added or partiallyomitted. Further, some fields of the HE-SIG-A may be partially added oromitted in other environments other than a multi-user (MU) environment.

An HE-SIG-B 740 may be included only in the case of the PPDU for themultiple users (MUs) as described above. Principally, an HE-SIG-A 750 oran HE-SIG-B 760 may include resource allocation information(alternatively, virtual resource allocation information) for at leastone receiving STA.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating one example of HE-SIG-B accordingto an embodiment.

As illustrated in FIG. 8, the HE-SIG-B field includes a common field ata frontmost part and the corresponding common field is separated from afield which follows therebehind to be encoded. That is, as illustratedin FIG. 8, the HE-SIG-B field may include a common field including thecommon control information and a user-specific field includinguser-specific control information. In this case, the common field mayinclude a CRC field corresponding to the common field, and the like andmay be coded to be one BCC block. The user-specific field subsequentthereafter may be coded to be one BCC block including the “user-specificfield” for 2 users and a CRC field corresponding thereto as illustratedin FIG. 8.

A previous field of the HE-SIG-B 740 may be transmitted in a duplicatedform on an MU PPDU. In the case of the HE-SIG-B 740, the HE-SIG-B 740transmitted in some frequency band (e.g., a fourth frequency band) mayeven include control information for a data field corresponding to acorresponding frequency band (that is, the fourth frequency band) and adata field of another frequency band (e.g., a second frequency band)other than the corresponding frequency band. Further, a format may beprovided, in which the HE-SIG-B 740 in a specific frequency band (e.g.,the second frequency band) is duplicated with the HE-SIG-B 740 ofanother frequency band (e.g., the fourth frequency band). Alternatively,the HE-SIG B 740 may be transmitted in an encoded form on alltransmission resources. A field after the HE-SIG B 740 may includeindividual information for respective receiving STAs receiving the PPDU.

The HE-STF 750 may be used for improving automatic gain controlestimation in a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) environment or anOFDMA environment.

The HE-LTF 760 may be used for estimating a channel in the MIMOenvironment or the OFDMA environment.

The size of fast Fourier transform (FFT)/inverse fast Fourier transform(IFFT) applied to the HE-STF 750 and the field after the HE-STF 750, andthe size of the FFT/IFFT applied to the field before the HE-STF 750 maybe different from each other. For example, the size of the FFT/IFFTapplied to the HE-STF 750 and the field after the HE-STF 750 may be fourtimes larger than the size of the FFT/IFFT applied to the field beforethe HE-STF 750.

For example, when at least one field of the L-STF 700, the L-LTF 710,the L-SIG 720, the HE-SIG-A 730, and the HE-SIG-B 740 on the PPDU ofFIG. 7 is referred to as a first field, at least one of the data field770, the HE-STF 750, and the HE-LTF 760 may be referred to as a secondfield. The first field may include a field associated with a legacysystem and the second field may include a field associated with an HEsystem. In this case, the fast Fourier transform (FFT) size and theinverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) size may be defined as a sizewhich is N (N is a natural number, e.g., N=1, 2, and 4) times largerthan the FFT/IFFT size used in the legacy wireless LAN system. That is,the FFT/IFFT having the size may be applied, which is N (=4) timeslarger than the first field of the HE PPDU. For example, 256 FFT/IFFTmay be applied to a bandwidth of 20 MHz, 512 FFT/IFFT may be applied toa bandwidth of 40 MHz, 1024 FFT/IFFT may be applied to a bandwidth of 80MHz, and 2048 FFT/IFFT may be applied to a bandwidth of continuous 160MHz or discontinuous 160 MHz.

In other words, a subcarrier space/subcarrier spacing may have a sizewhich is 1/N times (N is the natural number, e.g., N=4, the subcarrierspacing is set to 78.125 kHz) the subcarrier space used in the legacywireless LAN system. That is, subcarrier spacing having a size of 312.5kHz, which is legacy subcarrier spacing may be applied to the firstfield of the HE PPDU and a subcarrier space having a size of 78.125 kHzmay be applied to the second field of the HE PPDU.

Alternatively, an IDFT/DFT period applied to each symbol of the firstfield may be expressed to be N (=4) times shorter than the IDFT/DFTperiod applied to each data symbol of the second field. That is, theIDFT/DFT length applied to each symbol of the first field of the HE PPDUmay be expressed as 3.2 ps and the IDFT/DFT length applied to eachsymbol of the second field of the HE PPDU may be expressed as 3.2 μs*4(=12.8 μs). The length of the OFDM symbol may be a value acquired byadding the length of a guard interval (GI) to the IDFT/DFT length. Thelength of the GI may have various values such as 0.4 μs, 0.8 μs, 1.6 μs,2.4 μs, and 3.2 μs.

For simplicity in the description, in FIG. 7, it is expressed that afrequency band used by the first field and a frequency band used by thesecond field accurately coincide with each other, but both frequencybands may not completely coincide with each other, in actual. Forexample, a primary band of the first field (L-STF, L-LTF, L-SIG,HE-SIG-A, and HE-SIG-B) corresponding to the first frequency band may bethe same as the most portions of a frequency band of the second field(HE-STF, HE-LTF, and Data), but boundary surfaces of the respectivefrequency bands may not coincide with each other. As illustrated inFIGS. 4 to 6, since multiple null subcarriers, DC tones, guard tones,and the like are inserted during arranging the RUs, it may be difficultto accurately adjust the boundary surfaces.

The user (e.g., a receiving station) may receive the HE-SIG-A 730 andmay be instructed to receive the downlink PPDU based on the HE-SIG-A730. In this case, the STA may perform decoding based on the FFT sizechanged from the HE-STF 750 and the field after the HE-STF 750. On thecontrary, when the STA may not be instructed to receive the downlinkPPDU based on the HE-SIG-A 730, the STA may stop the decoding andconfigure a network allocation vector (NAV). A cyclic prefix (CP) of theHE-STF 750 may have a larger size than the CP of another field and theduring the CP period, the STA may perform the decoding for the downlinkPPDU by changing the FFT size.

Hereinafter, in the embodiment of the present invention, data(alternatively, or a frame) which the AP transmits to the STA may beexpressed as a terms called downlink data (alternatively, a downlinkframe) and data (alternatively, a frame) which the STA transmits to theAP may be expressed as a term called uplink data (alternatively, anuplink frame). Further, transmission from the AP to the STA may beexpressed as downlink transmission and transmission from the STA to theAP may be expressed as a term called uplink transmission.

In addition, a PHY protocol data unit (PPDU), a frame, and datatransmitted through the downlink transmission may be expressed as termssuch as a downlink PPDU, a downlink frame, and downlink data,respectively. The PPDU may be a data unit including a PPDU header and aphysical layer service data unit (PSDU) (alternatively, a MAC protocoldata unit (MPDU)). The PPDU header may include a PHY header and a PHYpreamble and the PSDU (alternatively, MPDU) may include the frame orindicate the frame (alternatively, an information unit of the MAC layer)or be a data unit indicating the frame. The PHY header may be expressedas a physical layer convergence protocol (PLCP) header as another termand the PHY preamble may be expressed as a PLCP preamble as anotherterm.

Further, a PPDU, a frame, and data transmitted through the uplinktransmission may be expressed as terms such as an uplink PPDU, an uplinkframe, and uplink data, respectively.

In the wireless LAN system to which the embodiment of the presentdescription is applied, the whole bandwidth may be used for downlinktransmission to one STA and uplink transmission to one STA. Further, inthe wireless LAN system to which the embodiment of the presentdescription is applied, the AP may perform downlink (DL) multi-user (MU)transmission based on multiple input multiple output (MU MIMO) and thetransmission may be expressed as a term called DL MU MIMO transmission.

In addition, in the wireless LAN system according to the embodiment, anorthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) based transmissionmethod is preferably supported for the uplink transmission and/ordownlink transmission. That is, data units (e.g., RUs) corresponding todifferent frequency resources are allocated to the user to performuplink/downlink communication. In detail, in the wireless LAN systemaccording to the embodiment, the AP may perform the DL MU transmissionbased on the OFDMA and the transmission may be expressed as a termcalled DL MU OFDMA transmission. When the DL MU OFDMA transmission isperformed, the AP may transmit the downlink data (alternatively, thedownlink frame and the downlink PPDU) to the plurality of respectiveSTAs through the plurality of respective frequency resources on anoverlapped time resource. The plurality of frequency resources may be aplurality of subbands (alternatively, sub channels) or a plurality ofresource units (RUs). The DL MU OFDMA transmission may be used togetherwith the DL MU MIMO transmission. For example, the DL MU MIMOtransmission based on a plurality of space-time streams (alternatively,spatial streams) may be performed on a specific subband (alternatively,sub channel) allocated for the DL MU OFDMA transmission.

Further, in the wireless LAN system according to the embodiment, uplinkmulti-user (UL MU) transmission in which the plurality of STAs transmitsdata to the AP on the same time resource may be supported. Uplinktransmission on the overlapped time resource by the plurality ofrespective STAs may be performed on a frequency domain or a spatialdomain.

When the uplink transmission by the plurality of respective STAs isperformed on the frequency domain, different frequency resources may beallocated to the plurality of respective STAs as uplink transmissionresources based on the OFDMA. The different frequency resources may bedifferent subbands (alternatively, sub channels) or different resourcesunits (RUs). The plurality of respective STAs may transmit uplink datato the AP through different frequency resources. The transmission methodthrough the different frequency resources may be expressed as a termcalled a UL MU OFDMA transmission method.

When the uplink transmission by the plurality of respective STAs isperformed on the spatial domain, different time-space streams(alternatively, spatial streams) may be allocated to the plurality ofrespective STAs and the plurality of respective STAs may transmit theuplink data to the AP through the different time-space streams. Thetransmission method through the different spatial streams may beexpressed as a term called a UL MU MIMO transmission method.

The UL MU OFDMA transmission and the UL MU MIMO transmission may be usedtogether with each other. For example, the UL MU MIMO transmission basedon the plurality of space-time streams (alternatively, spatial streams)may be performed on a specific subband (alternatively, sub channel)allocated for the UL MU OFDMA transmission.

In the legacy wireless LAN system which does not support the MU OFDMAtransmission, a multi-channel allocation method is used for allocating awider bandwidth (e.g., a 20 MHz excess bandwidth) to one terminal. Whena channel unit is 20 MHz, multiple channels may include a plurality of20 MHz-channels. In the multi-channel allocation method, a primarychannel rule is used to allocate the wider bandwidth to the terminal.When the primary channel rule is used, there is a limit for allocatingthe wider bandwidth to the terminal. In detail, according to the primarychannel rule, when a secondary channel adjacent to a primary channel isused in an overlapped BSS (OBSS) and is thus busy, the STA may useremaining channels other than the primary channel. Therefore, since theSTA may transmit the frame only to the primary channel, the STA receivesa limit for transmission of the frame through the multiple channels.That is, in the legacy wireless LAN system, the primary channel ruleused for allocating the multiple channels may be a large limit inobtaining a high throughput by operating the wider bandwidth in acurrent wireless LAN environment in which the OBSS is not small.

In order to solve the problem, in the embodiment, a wireless LAN systemis disclosed, which supports the OFDMA technology. That is, the OFDMAtechnique may be applied to at least one of downlink and uplink.Further, the MU-MIMO technique may be additionally applied to at leastone of downlink and uplink. When the OFDMA technique is used, themultiple channels may be simultaneously used by not one terminal butmultiple terminals without the limit by the primary channel rule.Therefore, the wider bandwidth may be operated to improve efficiency ofoperating a wireless resource.

As described above, in case the uplink transmission performed by each ofthe multiple STAs (e.g., non-AP STAs) is performed within the frequencydomain, the AP may allocate different frequency resources respective toeach of the multiple STAs as uplink transmission resources based onOFDMA. Additionally, as described above, the frequency resources eachbeing different from one another may correspond to different subbands(or sub-channels) or different resource units (RUs).

The different frequency resources respective to each of the multipleSTAs are indicated through a trigger frame.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a trigger frame. The trigger frame ofFIG. 9 allocates resources for Uplink Multiple-User (MU) transmissionand may be transmitted from the AP. The trigger frame may be configuredas a MAC frame and may be included in the PPDU. For example, the triggerframe may be transmitted through the PPDU shown in FIG. 3, through thelegacy PPDU shown in FIG. 2, or through a certain PPDU, which is newlydesigned for the corresponding trigger frame. In case the trigger frameis transmitted through the PPDU of FIG. 3, the trigger frame may beincluded in the data field shown in the drawing.

Each of the fields shown in FIG. 9 may be partially omitted, or otherfields may be added. Moreover, the length of each field may be varieddifferently as shown in the drawing.

A Frame Control field 910 shown in FIG. 9 may include informationrelated to a version of the MAC protocol and other additional controlinformation, and a Duration field 920 may include time information forconfiguring a NAV or information related to an identifier (e.g., AID) ofthe user equipment.

Additionally, a RA field 930 may include address information of areceiving STA of the corresponding trigger frame, and this field mayalso be omitted as required. A TA field 940 may include addressinformation of the STA (e.g., AP) transmitting the corresponding triggerframe, and a common information field 950 may include common controlinformation that is applied to the receiving STA receiving thecorresponding trigger frame.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a common information field. Among thesub-fields of FIG. 10, some may be omitted, and other additionalsub-fields may also be added. Additionally, the length of each of thesub-fields shown in the drawing may be varied.

As shown in the drawing, the Length field 1010 may be given that samevalue as the Length field of the L-SIG field of the uplink PPDU, whichis transmitted in response to the corresponding trigger frame, and theLength field of the L-SIG field of the uplink PPDU indicates the lengthof the uplink PPDU. As a result, the Length field 1010 of the triggerframe may be used for indicating the length of its respective uplinkPPDU.

Additionally, a Cascade Indicator field 1020 indicates whether or not acascade operation is performed. The cascade operation refers to adownlink MU transmission and an uplink MU transmission being performedsimultaneously within the same TXOP. More specifically, this refers to acase when a downlink MU transmission is first performed, and, then,after a predetermined period of time (e.g., SIFS), an uplink MUtransmission is performed. During the cascade operation, only onetransmitting device performing downlink communication (e.g., AP) mayexist, and multiple transmitting devices performing uplink communication(e.g., non-AP) may exist.

A CS Request field 1030 indicates whether or not the status or NAV of awireless medium is required to be considered in a situation where areceiving device that has received the corresponding trigger frametransmits the respective uplink PPDU.

A HE-SIG-A information field 1040 may include information controllingthe content of a SIG-A field (i.e., HE-SIG-A field) of an uplink PPDU,which is being transmitted in response to the corresponding triggerframe.

A CP and LTF type field 1050 may include information on a LTF length anda CP length of the uplink PPDU being transmitted in response to thecorresponding trigger frame. A trigger type field 1060 may indicate apurpose for which the corresponding trigger frame is being used, e.g.,general triggering, triggering for beamforming, and so on, a request fora Block ACK/NACK, and so on.

Meanwhile, the remaining description on FIG. 9 will be additionallyprovided as described below.

It is preferable that the trigger frame includes per user informationfields 960#1 to 960#N corresponding to the number of receiving STAsreceiving the trigger frame of FIG. 9. The per user information fieldmay also be referred to as a “RU Allocation field”.

Additionally, the trigger frame of FIG. 9 may include a Padding field970 and a Sequence field 980.

It is preferable that each of the per user information fields 960#1 to960#N shown in FIG. 9 further includes multiple sub-fields.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a sub-field being included in a peruser information field. Among the sub-fields of FIG. 11, some may beomitted, and other additional sub-fields may also be added.Additionally, the length of each of the sub-fields shown in the drawingmay be varied.

A User Identifier field 1110 indicates an identifier of an STA (i.e.,receiving STA) to which the per user information corresponds, and anexample of the identifier may correspond to all or part of the AID.

Additionally, a RU Allocation field 1120 may be included in thesub-field of the per user information field. More specifically, in casea receiving STA, which is identified by the User Identifier field 1110,transmits an uplink PPDU in response to the trigger frame of FIG. 9, thecorresponding uplink PPDU is transmitted through the RU, which isindicated by the RU Allocation field 1120. In this case, it ispreferable that the RU that is being indicated by the RU Allocationfield 1120 corresponds to the RU shown in FIG. 4, FIG. 5, and FIG. 6.

The sub-field of FIG. 11 may include a Coding Type field 1130. TheCoding Type field 1130 may indicate a coding type of the uplink PPDUbeing transmitted in response to the trigger frame of FIG. 9. Forexample, in case BBC coding is applied to the uplink PPDU, the CodingType field 1130 may be set to ‘1’, and, in case LDPC coding is appliedto the uplink PPDU, the Coding Type field 1130 may be set to ‘0’.

Additionally, the sub-field of FIG. 11 may include a MCS field 1140. TheMCS field 1140 may indicate a MCS scheme being applied to the uplinkPPDU that is transmitted in response to the trigger frame of FIG. 9. Forexample, in case BBC coding is applied to the uplink PPDU, the CodingType field 1130 may be set to ‘1’, and, in case LDPC coding is appliedto the uplink PPDU, the Coding Type field 1130 may be set to ‘0’.

Hereinafter, the exemplary embodiment relates to a method forcontrolling transmission of an uplink PPDU corresponding to a networkallocation vector (NAV). The detailed description on the NAV is aspresented below.

Carrier sensing mechanism for determining whether or not a wirelessmedium is accessible may be broadly divided into physical carriersensing and virtual carrier sensing. The physical carrier sensing refersto a method of detecting whether or not a wireless medium is physicallyavailable for usage in relation to a shared radio channel by using therelated art clear channel assessment (CCA) method, and so on. Since thephysical carrier sensing causes power consumption, in order to preventsuch power consumption, the virtual channel sensing method may also beused in combination.

The wireless LAN system according to IEEE 802.11 performs virtualcarrier sensing by using a method of configuring the NAV through aduration field, which is included in a header of a MAC layer frame. Morespecifically, the receiving station that has verified the duration fieldof the received MAC frame configures the NAV based on the receivedduration field, and, in case the NAV is not equal to 0, the receivingstation determines that the wireless medium is a busy state and,therefore, does not perform transmission to the wireless medium. In casethe NAV becomes equal to 0 due to a parameter that is counted down, thewireless medium may be considered to be in an idle state and treatedaccordingly.

A more detailed operation related to the NAV is introduced in the IEEE802.11 specification, and, more specifically, in case the MAC addressthat is included in the RA field of the frame, which is received by thereceiving station, is identical to the MAC address of the correspondingreceiving station, the NAV is not updated. In other words, the NAV ismaintained without modification. However, in case the MAC addresses arenot identical to one another, the NAV of the corresponding receivingstation is compared with the duration field of the received MAC header,and, in case the received duration field is longer, then, the NAV isupdated by using the received duration value.

The above-described related art NAV operation had no problem in wirelessLAN system supporting a single transmitting device and a singlereceiving device. However, in an IEEE 802.11ax system to which thisexemplary embodiment may be applied or in other enhanced wireless LANsystems the following technical problems may occur. More specifically,in the related art wireless LAN system, since the transmitting deviceand the receiving device were identically maintained within the sameTXOP, there was no unclearness in the NAV operation. However, sincemulti-user transmission is required to be supported in the TXOP, thefollowing enhanced method is required.

Firstly, the transmission opportunity (TXOP) that is related tomulti-user (MU) transmission, i.e., MU TXOP, is determined as describedbelow, which is also related to the problems occurring in the relatedart method. The TXOP indicates a time duration during which a specificSTA has the right to disclose frame exchange sequences to a wirelessmedium, and this corresponds to a time duration that is generallydefined by a starting time and a maximum duration. As described above,in case a problem occurs in a cascade operation, downlink MUtransmission and uplink MU transmission may both be performing withinthe same TXOP. Additionally, the above-described trigger frame may beprovided through the MAC layer, and an additional PPDU may be providedduring the downlink MU transmission and uplink MU transmissionprocesses. Although only one device may be determined as thetransmitting device performing the downlink transmission, multiple ULtransmitting devices transmitting each of the uplink MU PPDUs may alsobe determined as a different set. Additionally, even though both thedownlink MU transmission and the uplink MU transmission are performedwithin the same TXOP, a STA set corresponding to the target of thedownlink MU transmission may be different from a STA set correspondingto the subject (or transmitter) of the uplink MU transmission.

In case operations are carried out in accordance with the related artTXOP definitions, multiple trigger frames may be transmitted from aspecific transmitting STA (e.g., AP) during one TXOP (i.e., MU TXOP).More specifically, a first trigger frame may trigger uplink MUtransmission (i.e., transmission of the uplink MU PPDUs) from STAs 1-3,and a second trigger frame may trigger uplink MU transmission (i.e.,transmission of the uplink MU PPDUs) from STAs 4-6. In this case, if therelated art NAV operations are performed, among the STAs that havereceived the first trigger frame, the remaining STAs excluding STAs 1-3configure the NAV based on the first trigger frame.

In the above-described situation, even in a case when the transmittingSTA (e.g., AP) allocates uplink resources for STAs 4-6 through thesecond trigger frame (i.e., a case when the RU is allocated by using the960#1 to 960#N fields of FIG. 9), the corresponding STAs 4-6 may not becapable of adequately transmitting uplink PPDUs in response to thesecond trigger frame. More specifically, as described above, since theNAV has been configured based on the first trigger frame, even if the RUhas been explicitly allocated through the second trigger frame, anadequate transmission of the uplink PPDU may be impossible.

Additionally, in case the STA receives a PPDU from a neighboring BSS,i.e., inter-BSS or OBSS (overlapping BSS), instead of a BSS that isconfigured through an association with a specific AP, the NAV may alsobe configured through the corresponding PPDU. In this situation, in casethe STA has its ID (i.e., its AID) included in a trigger frame of FIG.9, and so on, and is required to transmit an uplink PPDU accordingly,problems of unclearness in how the STA is intended to configure the NAVor in whether or not the STA is required to transmit an uplink PPDUcorresponding to the trigger frame existed in the related artspecification (or standard).

In order to resolve the diverse problems occurring in the related artincluding the above-described problem, this exemplary embodimentproposes an enhanced method related to the NAV. For example, in casetriggering of a specific STA is performed after a NAV has already beenconfigured due to diverse reasons (i.e., in case a trigger frameincluding the AID of the corresponding STA is being received), a newmethod related to the NAV configuration and the uplink PPDU transmissionis proposed as described below.

FIG. 12 is a procedure flow chart describing the operations according tothe exemplary embodiment. The example of FIG. 12 is related to a methodfor configuring the NAV.

As shown in the drawing, the receiving device (e.g., non-AP STA) mayreceive a BSS packet (or frame) and may configure the NAV in accordancewith the received BSS packet (S1210). The corresponding BSS maycorrespond to a packet that is received from an intra-BSS to which thereceiving device belongs or may correspond to packet that is receivedfrom an OBSS or inter-BSS. Whether the packet being received throughstep S1210 corresponds to a packet being received from an intra-BSS or apacket being received from an OBSS may be determined by an identifierthat is included in the corresponding packet. For example, in case thePPDU shown in FIG. 3 is being received, the identifier of the BSS isidentified through a BSS color field, which is included in the HE-SIG Afield, and, then, the corresponding packet may be identified as theintra-BSS or the OBSS by using the identifier.

In case the NAV is configured in accordance with step S1210, thecorresponding receiving device cannot transmit any uplink PPDU until theNAV becomes equal to 0. However, in case the transmission of an uplinkPPDU is triggered by the trigger frame, which is shown in FIG. 9, and soon, the value of the NAV may be disregarded (or ignored).

More specifically, the receiving device receives a trigger frame foruplink MU transmission (S1120). The corresponding trigger frame may bethe same as in the example shown in FIG. 9, and so on.

In this case, considering the virtual carrier sensing, in case the NAVvalue is not equal to 0, as a rule, the receiving device cannot transmitany uplink PPDU corresponding to the trigger frame. However, thisexemplary embodiment proposes an exemption for this case. Morespecifically, as shown in the drawing, this exemplary embodimentproposes a method of determining whether or not an uplink PPDUcorresponding to the trigger frame can be transmitted withoutconsidering the NAV through step S1230.

For example, if the NAV in the receiving device is configured based onan intra-BSS packet, i.e., in case the packet that is received in stepS1210 corresponds to an intra-BSS packet the above-described problem canbe resolved by transmitting an uplink BSS pack without considering thecorresponding NAV. Accordingly, in step S1230, it is determined whetheror not the predetermined NAV is configured by an intra BSS packet.

In case the predetermined NAV is configured by an intra BSS packet(e.g., in case the packet that is received in step S1210 is receivedfrom an AP, which corresponds to the transmitting device that hastransmitted the trigger frame in step S1220, and/or, in case the packetthat is received in step S1210 is received from a non-AP STA belongingto an intra-BSS), the transmission of an uplink PPDU corresponding tothe trigger frame is performed without considering the NAV (S1240). Incase of performing step S1240, the predetermined NAV may be reset, andits previous value may be maintained. Meanwhile, in case of performingstep S1240, even if the NAV is not considered, the physical carriersensing may be additionally performed.

In step S1230, in case the predetermined NAV is not configured by anintra-BSS packet, i.e., in case the NAV is configured by an OBSS packet,the operations related to step S1250 are performed.

The operations related to step S1250 may follow any one of the twooptions that are described below. More specifically, in case offollowing the first option, the transmission of an uplink PPDU cannot beattempted before a NAV timer is expired (i.e., before the NAV valuebecomes equal to 0). In other words, in case of following the firstoption, the case of having the NAV configured by the OBSS packet cannotbe excluded from the NAV operation. In case of following the firstoption, the NAV may not be reset or updated, and the initial NAV may notbe maintained. A second option according to step S1250 corresponds toattempting to transmit an uplink PPDU while disregarding the NAV, incase a predetermined condition is satisfied (or realized). For example,in case a value marked in a length field (e.g., the length field 1010 ofFIG. 10), which is indicated in the trigger frame that has been receivedin step S1220, is compared with a current NAV timer value, thetransmission of the uplink PPDU may be allowed only in a case when thecurrent NAV timer value is smaller. Such second option may be requiredfor normally receiving an ACK (or Block ACK) in response to the uplinkMU PPDU.

If the above-described example shown in FIG. 12 is describeddifferently, an STA supporting an uplink MU transmission according tothe trigger frame essentially supports the related art NAV operations.However, the exemplary embodiment proposes that predetermined exemptionsfrom the NAV operations shall be accepted, and several exemptions mayexist. This exemplary embodiment determines whether or not to accept theexemptions from the NAV operations based on whether or not thetransmitting subject of the packet/frame/signal, which is the basis ofthe NAV configuration, is related to the intra-BSS. For example, in casethe transmitting subject of the packet/frame/signal, which is the basisof the NAV configuration, is related to the intra-BSS, the exemptionsfrom the NAV operations are accepted, and, accordingly, the exemplaryembodiment proposes to attempt transmission of the uplink PPDU whiledisregarding the NAV. In addition to this, or generally, in case thetransmitting subject of the packet/frame/signal, which is the basis ofthe NAV configuration, is related to the OBSS, either the exemptionsfrom the NAV operations may not be accepted or, in case a specificcondition is satisfied, the exemptions from the NAV operations may beaccepted.

Just as in the above-described example, the method of attempting totransmit the uplink PPDU while disregarding the NAV may also be appliedto another situation. More specifically, regardless of whether thepacket, which is the basis of the NAV configuration, corresponds to anintra-BSS packet/frame or an OBSS packet/frame, in case a specific typeof trigger frame is being received, it may be possible to attempttransmission of an uplink PPDU while disregarding the NAV. For example,in case the frame, which will hereinafter be described in detail,corresponds to a trigger frame for an OFDMA based random access or to aunicast trigger frame (i.e., the RA field of the trigger frame of FIG. 9is determined to have a unicast address instead of a broadcast address),an uplink MU transmission may be attempted without considering the NAV.Additionally, even in a case when an MU beamforming report, a resourcerequest, or a trigger frame related to other MAC control frames isreceived, an uplink MU transmission may be attempted without consideringthe NAV. In this case, in case the predetermined NAV is configured by anOBSS packet/frame, although a predetermined level of interference islikely to occur, since the size of the interference is limited, theabove-described method may be used in order to prevent any delay in theuplink MU transmission.

Hereinafter, the basic characteristics related to the OFDMA based randomaccess will be described in detail. The above-described trigger frame ofFIG. 9 may be used for the OFDMA based random access. More specifically,a plurality of receiving devices (e.g., non-AP STAs) may be allocatedwith uplink resource (i.e., RU) sets for random access from thetransmitting device (e.g., AP STA), and a receiving device that hassucceeded (or won) in the contention may randomly select one of thecorresponding resource sets. For example, the RA field 930 of thetrigger frame of FIG. 9 and/or a field of the User Identifier field 1110of FIG. 11 may be set to be equal to a predetermined value (e.g., abroadcast address may be included in the RA field, or the RA field maybe set to “AID 0”, or the RA field may be set to have a plurality ofAIDs), and uplink resource sets for random access may be configured byusing a method of designating multiple RU sets.

FIG. 13 is a drawing describing the basic operations of an OFDMA basedrandom access procedure.

More specifically, in relation to the OFDMA based random accessprocedure, as shown in FIG. 13, an OFDMA Back-Off (OBO) counter isdefined. The OBO counter is counted down in RU units. Additionally, aninteger value that is referred to as an OFDMA contention window (OCW)value is defined, and an OCWmin value of such OCW value is determined.The OCWmin value is used for determining an OBO counter value for eachSTA.

The OFDMA based random access procedure may be initiated by an STA thathas received the trigger frame of FIG. 9. Meanwhile, the OCWmin value issignaled to the STA performing the OFDMA based random access procedureby using diverse methods, and once the OCWmin value is delivered to theSTA, the corresponding STA determines an initial value of the OBOcounter by using a random value of a [0, OCWmin] duration.

In FIG. 13, if a first trigger frame 1310 is transmitted, an OBO countervalue is configured for each of STAs 1-3. For example, an initial OBOcounter value may be respectively set to 11, 5, 1 for STAs 1-3.Additionally, 3 RU sets for the random access may be allocated throughthe first trigger frame 1310. The OBO counter value may decrease by 1per 1 RU, and, in this case, since the OBO counter value for STA3 is setto 0 for “RU 1”, STA3 may randomly select one of the RU sets (i.e., RUs1-3) that are designed through the first trigger frame 1310 and may thenperform transmission. In case of STAs 1-2, since the OBO counter valueis not yet set to 0, the operation of decreasing the counter value foreach of the RUs is performed, and the transmission of the uplink PPDUcannot be performed.

In FIG. 13, when a second trigger frame 1320 is transmitted, the OBOcounter value for each RU is decreased, and, during this process, sincethe OBO counter value of STA 2 becomes equal to 0, STA 2 succeeds (orwins) in the contention, thereby being capable of transmitting an uplinkPPDU by using any random one of the designated RU sets (i.e., RUs 1-2-).

In FIG. 13, since a third trigger frame 1330 is not used for the randomaccess procedure, no decrease occurs in the OBO counter, and no relatedrandom access operation is performed.

The above-described method according to the exemplary embodiment, i.e.,the method of attempting to transmit an uplink PPDU without consideringthe NAV, may also be applied to the OFDMA based random access procedure.More specifically, an example related to the OFDMA based random accessprocedure proposes a method of selectively using one of the two methodsor using the two methods in combination. The first proposed examplerelates to configuring the NAV, decreasing the above-described OBOcounter even if the NAV timer is not expired (i.e., in case the NAV isgreater than 0), and transmitting the uplink PPDU when the OBO counterbecomes equal to 0. It is preferable that the first example is appliedto a case when the NAV is configured by an intra-BSS packet/frame. Morespecifically, in case the packet/frame that is used for configuring theNAV is received by the transmitting device, which has transmitted thetrigger frame initiating the random access procedure, and/or, in casethe packet/frame that is used for configuring the NAV is received by anintra-BSS STA, it is preferable to apply the first example.

Meanwhile, it is preferable that the second example is applied to a casewhen the NAV is configured by an OBSS packet/frame. The second exampleproposes that, while the related art NAV operations are being performed(i.e., while the NAV timer is decreasing to 0), the back-off operationaccording to FIG. 13 is stopped (i.e., as the OBO counter decreases, ifthe OBO counter becomes equal to 0, the operation of transmitting anuplink PPDU to the randomly selected RU is stopped), a sleep mode ismaintained until the NAV timer becomes equal to 0. The above-describedtwo examples may be selectively used or may be used simultaneously.

Hereinafter, additional characteristics related to carrier sensing in asituation of attempting to transmit an uplink PPDU without consideringthe NAV will be described in detail.

More specifically, in case the transmitting device (e.g., AP) allocatesan uplink MU resource, the AP may perform physical carrier sensingand/or virtual carrier sensing. In case the radio channel is determinedto be in an idle state by the carrier sensing process, the trigger framemay be transmitted. However, in case the receiving device (e.g., non-APSTA) intends to initiate uplink MU transmission, it may be determined bythe physical carrier sensing and/or virtual carrier sensing processperformed by the receiving device that the radio channel is in a busystate. In this case, until the corresponding channel becomes idle, thereceiving device is required to delay the uplink MU transmission and toperform random back-off.

In this situation, regardless of the result of the physical carriersensing and/or virtual carrier sensing process performed by thereceiving device, it may also be possible to allow the uplink MUtransmission to be performed. More specifically, according to thisexample, even if the radio channel is determined to be in a busy stateby using the CCA method, if a trigger frame transmitted via uplink MUcommunication is received, it may be possible to transmit the uplink MUPPDU. In this case, it may be possible that the CCA method is notperformed at all by the receiving device. According to yet anotherexample, regardless of the NAV timer, if a trigger frame for MUtransmission is received, it may be possible to transmit an uplink MUPPDU. More specifically, even if the NAV is not equal to 0, it may bepossible to transmit an uplink MU PPDU. The above-described two examplesmay be selectively used or may be used simultaneously in combination.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing an uplink MU PPDU that is transmittedin response to the above-described trigger frame.

As shown in the drawing, the PPDU of FIG. 14 includes diverse fields,and each field corresponds to the respective fields shown in FIG. 2 toFIG. 3. Meanwhile, as shown in the drawing, the uplink PPDU of FIG. 14does not include a HE-SIG B field and may only include a HE-SIG-A field.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing a wireless device to which theexemplary embodiment may be applied.

Referring to FIG. 15, as an STA that can realize the above-describedexemplary embodiment, the wireless device may correspond to an AP or anon-AP STA (non-AP station). The wireless device may correspond to theabove-described user or may correspond to a transmitting devicetransmitting signals to the user.

The AP 1500 includes a processor 1510, a memory 1520, and a radiofrequency unit (RF) unit 1530.

The RF unit 1530 is connected to the processor 1510, thereby beingcapable of transmitting and/or receiving radio signals.

The processor 1510 implements the functions, processes, and/or methodsproposed in the present invention. For example, the processor 1510 maybe realized to perform the operations according to the above-describedexemplary embodiments of the present invention. More specifically, amongthe operations disclosed in the exemplary embodiments of FIG. 1 to FIG.14, the processor 1510 may perform the operations that can be performedby the AP.

The non-AP STA 1550 includes a processor 1560, a memory 1570, and a RFunit (radio frequency unit) 1580.

The RF unit 1580 is connected to the processor 1560, thereby beingcapable of transmitting and/or receiving radio signals.

The processor 1560 implements the functions, processes, and/or methodsproposed in the present invention. For example, the processor 1560 maybe realized to perform the operations of the non-AP STA according to theabove-described exemplary embodiments of the present invention. Theprocessor may perform the operations of the non-AP STA, which aredisclosed in the exemplary embodiments of FIG. 1 to FIG. 14.

The processor 1510 and 1560 may include an application-specificintegrated circuit (ASIC), another chip set, a logical circuit, a dataprocessing device, and/or a converter converting a baseband signal and aradio signal to and from one another. The memory 1520 and 1570 mayinclude a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a flashmemory, a memory card, a storage medium, and/or another storage device.The RF unit 1530 and 1580 may include one or more antennas transmittingand/or receiving radio signals.

When the exemplary embodiment is implemented as software, theabove-described method may be implemented as a module (process,function, and so on) performing the above-described functions. Themodule may be stored in the memory 1520 and 1570 and may be executed bythe processor 1510 and 1560. The memory 1520 and 1570 may be locatedinside or outside of the processor 1510 and 1560 and may be connected tothe processor 1510 and 1560 through a diversity of well-known means.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method in a wireless local area network (WLAN)system, the method comprising: setting, by a station (STA), a networkallocation vector (NAV) of the STA based on a received frame; receiving,by the STA, a trigger frame triggering uplink multiple usertransmission; and determining, by the STA, whether to consider the NAVwhen configuring an uplink (UL) physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU)triggered by the trigger frame, wherein the STA does not consider NAVfor the UL PPDU when the NAV is set based on an intra basic service set(BSS) frame.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the trigger frameincludes a medium access control, MAC, layer frame including a controlfield for an association identifier, AID, of at least one device relatedto the uplink multiple user transmission.
 3. The method of claim 2,wherein the MAC layer frame further includes a length field for a lengthof the UL PPDU.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the NAV is set basedon the intra BSS frame or a inter BSS frame.
 5. The method of claim 4,wherein the intra BSS frame is received from a first BSS beingassociated with the STA, and the inter BSS frame is received from asecond BSS being different from the first BSS.
 6. A station (STA) in awireless local area network (WLAN) system, comprising: a transceiver forreceiving and transmitting frames; and a processor coupled to thetransceiver, wherein the processor is configured to: set a networkallocation vector (NAV) of the STA based on a received frame; instructthe transceiver to receive a trigger frame triggering uplink multipleuser transmission; and determine whether to consider the NAV whenconfiguring an uplink (UL) physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU)triggered by the trigger frame, wherein the STA does not consider NAVfor the UL PPDU when the NAV is set based on an intra basic service set(BSS) frame.
 7. The STA of claim 6, wherein the trigger frame includes amedium access control, MAC, layer frame including a control field for anassociation identifier, AID, of at least one device related to theuplink multiple user transmission.
 8. The STA of claim 7, wherein theMAC layer frame further includes a length field for a length of the ULPPDU.
 9. The STA of claim 6, wherein the NAV is set based on the intraBSS frame or a inter BSS frame.
 10. The STA of claim 9, wherein theintra BSS frame is received from a first BSS being associated with theSTA, and the inter BSS frame is received from a second BSS beingdifferent from the first BSS.